F0 tornado, Leander to Georgetown, Texas, March 16, 2000

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F0

Date

March 16, 2000

Touchdown

4:08 PM CST (22:08 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Williamson County

Touchdown point

30.580, -97.850

Lift-off point

30.580, -97.850

Record number

656

A strong weather system produced scattered showers and thunderstorms over Central Texas on the afternoon of Thursday March 16. Funnel clouds were first reported by the public and by the Leander Police Department near 4 pm that afternoon. A small, short-lived F0 tornado struck near the police station near 4 pm, with no significant damage. Shortly after 4 pm, another rope-shaped funnel was observed west of Leander. Photographs of this developing tornado indicate a generally-long and rope-shaped structure that slowly twisted and wound its way to the surface. The tornado touched down in the western part of Mason Creek Subdivision located on the west side of Leander and moved slowly eastward. Damage near the tornado touchdown was F0 level approaching F1. It damaged eaves of roofs, took shingles off roofs and knocked down large tree branches. More significant damage was noted along Greening Way and Mason Creek Boulevard in the west and central part of the subdivision, where several large trees of over 1 foot diameter were uprooted. This indicated damage in the lower levels of the F2 scale. In addition, the tornado had destroyed approximately 30 percent of one home. Again, this indicated minimal F2-level damage. The tornado began to lift as it approached Old Bagdad Road on the eastern side of the subdivision. Most of the damage in this part of the subdivision was at the F0 level. In all, the tornado damaged 24 homes and several outbuildings. The tornado was estimated at 200 yards wide with a path length of 1.5 mile.

A small and short-lived tornado was observed by an Amateur Radio spotter.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

0 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:08 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:36 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Georgetown (Awos) (GTU), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.